Pumping projects can seem simple on paper: water enters at one location and is required to move to another. In reality there are numerous factors that affect the distance between two points, such as elevation, flow rate solids, pressure storage capacity, and access to maintenance.

Image credit: romtecutilities.com

Romtec Utilities begins the design of the pumping station with defining these operational conditions, rather than choosing equipment from a catalog. The requirements for the project are used to design sketches and budgetary details.

Begin with a simple question: How are we moving?

The engineering is changed immediately.

The flow of domestic sewage is subject to substantial fluctuations in the course of a day. A wastewater lift facility must transport the wastewater in a reliable manner when gravity conveyance is inaccessible or not sufficient. Engineers must therefore consider the anticipated inflow and the conditions of peak, pumping capacity as well as wet-well behaviour and discharge specifications, and the manner in which the equipment is maintained and operated.

Diverse challenges arise from industrial water. The fluids used in a manufacturing or processing facility could require caustic, oily, or heated to extreme temperatures or pressure. Romtec Utilities designs industrial systems that can be used for everything from power generation and food processing to data centers as well as pharmaceutical waste and oil and gas facilities.

Rainfall creates a completely different Operating Cycle

Stormwater systems could spend long periods handling little activity and then face substantial amounts during a storm.

A stormwater lift station associated with a detention basin, for example, must work with the site’s larger drainage strategy. The water that flows through the detention basin, the temporary storage system manages the immediate volume and the pumping system moves the water collected to an authorized discharge point.

Romtec Utilities offered this type of solution to an Norco, California business park. The project required a pumping device to discharge a basin of detention into the public stormwater network. The station was intended to work as part of a drainage system in a development, not as an isolated piece of equipment.

The term “package” does not necessarily mean off-the-shelf

Many believe that a system for pumping packages is simply a set of components.

For engineering infrastructure, packing could also mean coordinating the most important pieces of equipment into a particular project-specific system. Pumps, meters and controls along with the structural elements and other equipment can be chosen according to the duty conditions.

This approach is especially helpful in situations where the new system has to be linked with an existing infrastructure. Industrial plants and municipal facilities do not always provide a lot of space for installation or well-maintained conditions. Equipment might need to be positioned around existing piping, structures electric systems, as well as operational plans.

Capacity Planning Can Have Real Consequences

Undersizing becomes particularly costly when facilities grow.

Romtec Utilities supplied a sewer lift station located at Portland International Airport for the PDX Next extension. The new station was constructed to double the peak-flow capacity of the previous system as the airport’s facilities grew.

This is a key concept of engineering: design conditions should not only reflect the way an installation operates in an average afternoon. Engineers need to be aware of what happens when demand rises.

The job isn’t done until the Equipment Shows Up

At the point where drawings and calculations have to become an operational system. Coordination of installation, starting, testing, documentation, and operator knowledge all affect long-term performance.

After a few years, the effectiveness of an engineered pumping systems is determined. When flow rates increase, a major storm arrives or equipment requires repair The decisions made during preliminary design are evident.

For Romtec Utilities, integrating these decision-making processes into a total specific pumping program helps turn individual pieces of equipment into infrastructure designed to handle the conditions they will be facing.